25,000 policemen deployed in Mumbai ahead of Ganpati celebrations

With Mumbai gearing up for Ganpati celebrations, the city police force is readying a massive deployment to ensure security and the smooth functioning of traffic in the city. There will be 25,000 personnel from the police, SRPF, CRPF, RAF and BSF deployed, along with 18 paramilitary forces, 100 Maharashtra police officers, and 2,500 home guards, CNN-IBN reported. It added that all mandals have been given anti-sabotage training, while security officials had identified 200 crowded spots and 52 extremely crowded and sensitive spots. [caption id=“attachment_1092915” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A Visarjan procession in Mumbai: Reuters[/caption] The police have also launched a new emergency number (022-22633333) apart from the usual 100 and 103,has been launched. However they have said that there was no reason to believe that a terror strike was imminent. The festival, which also inevitably becomes a traffic nightmare thanks to the hundreds of visarjan processions has also prompted stringent traffic measures in the city. CNN-IBN reported that 3,344 traffic policemen would work in 2 shifts along with as many as 4,000 volunteers. The police have said that there will be no parking allowed near mandals and on the visarjan route. In addition to this, 50 roads will be completely closed, while another 56 roads will be one way traffic only. In addition to this, thirteen roads will be closed for heavy traffic, while 94 roads will be closed for parking throughout the city.